"I'd like to see a public option succeed, so it's important that the Congress address verification. It's neither racist nor heartless to insist that a taxpayer benefit go to legal residents."

"Why else would they not take care of a simple legality?"

How would this verification process work, Ross? I see a large problem with it right off the bat. If a hospital treats a patient that is not a legal resident of the United States what happens then and who does the responsibility fall on? Who gets the blame? The person that checked the patient into the emergency room? The doctor that treated the patient? The entire hospital? What is the punishment? How will the threat of punishment play into the decisions made in a hospital emergency room? Should doctors and hospitals be threatened not to treat certain patients? Is this just another way to create more lawsuits related to healthcare? It would I bet create many more lawsuits and the threat of them and as such probably increase our healthcare costs far more than treating non-residents.

A man is brought to an emergency room, he is unconscious and carries no identification...do you treat him or let him wait until somebody can verify he is a legal resident?

Let's say the man is brought in by a woman who speaks no English and also has no identification because in a rush to get him to the emergency room she forgot her purse. Does the hospital treat the man based on what the woman says or do they push him aside until she can return home, get proof of residence and come back and show them? What if he's dead by the time she gets back? I see a lawyer loving this stuff.

A man comes to an emergency room, shows a drivers license and is treated. When the paperwork is processed and turned in for the claim it turns out the license is fake and there are about 200 people running around with the same license. Who gets the blame then for the hospital treating somebody with a fake license? Is it really the responsibility of healthcare facilities to be trying to verify people are legal residents or is it their job to provide medical care?

There are probably millions of "illegals" in this country with some form of identification including drivers licenses from all 50 states that have been acquired from the DMV in these states using other forms of false identification. Who is to blame when one of them gets treatment?

I see the lawyers making a lot of money off of this idea but I don't see it making a healthcare bill any better. I stand by my main point that you do not combine these issues as one just hinders the other. Illegal immigration needs to be handled in a separate way and not through the healthcare system. I see it adding more pressure on these healthcare workers that we already know are overwhelmed in these emergency rooms. I see no good reason to insert this in the bill as I think it opens the door to more problems that will involve lawyers and talk show hosts that will blast healthcare workers for not "doing their job" because these "illegals" are still slipping through the system.

So, I ask in all honesty, how would you propose this idea would work?